


stuck in place

by WattStalf



Series: Commissions [112]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hospitalization, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, commission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:21:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23684566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WattStalf/pseuds/WattStalf
Summary: After a serious injury, Gloria is hospitalized and miserable. Fortunately, Leon is there to look after her.
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Yuuri | Gloria
Series: Commissions [112]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1325462
Comments: 3
Kudos: 34





	stuck in place

**Author's Note:**

> Being in the hospital sucks and is absolutely miserable, 0/10 would not recommend

Gloria hates feeling powerless.

She hates it because it makes her feel like a kid again, sitting at home on her couch watching the rest of the world go on around her, while she is stuck in place, not sure when or how she can break free of that. Meeting Leon was what was changed all of that, and gave her the courage to go out and make a name for herself. In no time at all, she felt like she had fully left her childhood self behind, growing stronger all on her own, chasing her dreams and experiencing what the world had to offer her.

Of course, there is nothing so dramatic going on right now, and nothing that she will not be able to bounce back from. That is one thing that the doctors have assured her; her recovery may seem long and tedious, but it will not be forever, and she will be back in action soon enough, fully recovered. All she has to do is rest until then, but she is left feeling powerless, and she hates it.

It is just like when she was a kid, stuck in place, watching the rest of the world go on without her. Plenty of people are worried about her, but that does not change anything, and the world does not stop turning because Gloria is stuck in bed, waiting for her injuries to heal. Her injuries that she has been incredibly lucky with, she has often been assured, but she still does not feel very lucky at all.

She feels stupid for letting this happen to herself at all. After all the times she has spent training by herself, and after all the times that she has spent in the Wild Area, she should know well enough how to avoid trouble. She should know to never let her guard down, because while most wild Pokemon are not outright hostile, there are rare instances of trainers being attacked. That is why you can never go too far from a city without a Pokemon of your own, because you need to be able to protect yourself.

Gloria’s team is first rate, so maybe she has gotten too confident. Maybe she had thought there was nothing that she could not protect herself from, and that is why it happened to her. There is nothing she or any of her Pokemon can do for her if she is not paying close attention to her surroundings. If she is taken by surprise, it stands to reason that she can be seriously hurt, and they keep telling her that she is lucky that she had her team there to defend her after the initial attack.

They keep telling her that she is lucky she was protected by her Pokemon, and that she is lucky that Leon found her, that she is lucky her near-fatal injuries are nothing she can’t recovery from with the proper medical attention, and plenty of bed rest. Gloria is so,  _ so _ lucky, or so she is told, but none of it feels like luck to her. If she had any luck, she would not have ended up in this situation at all, but even that is not the right way to think about things.

She should not have to rely on luck at all; she should have been paying attention, and she should not have gotten so confident that she would allow something like that to happen to her. Gloria has only herself to blame for this, and maybe it is lucky that things were not worse than they already were, but she can’t bring herself to feel positively about that now. Right now, she is powerless and confined to this bed, and the rest of the world is going on without her, while she is left to recover.

More than anything, she wants to go back out and pick up where she left off. If she is not in top form in time for the next season, then she will lose her title to some up and coming challenger, or perhaps one of the gym leaders. For right now, Leon is doing his part by standing in for her, since he is still so beloved by the public and still known as one of the most fierce trainers out there. She appreciates that, but she worked hard to be able to defeat him, and it feels like a new kind of defeat to have him doing her work for her while she is laid up in the hospital.

He does not see it that way, and has said in interviews that he wants her to get back on her feet as soon as possible, because she has proven to be much better at all of this than he is. Gloria is pretty sure that he’s just saying that to make her feel better, because he knows that she still watches all of his interviews, even now, and even more so now that she has nothing else to do. Leon does what he can to keep her popularity high even while standing in the spotlight, which she does appreciate, but it seems like nothing can cheer her up right now.

All she wants is to get better, but even that is not what she  _ really _ wants. What she really wants is impossible, because she can’t turn back time and stop herself from being so damn careless, so for now, she settles for wishing for her own speedy recovery. Things are apparently going well, and she is at least not as sore as she was, and is able to stay awake for most of the day, which are both good signs. That being said, she kind of misses sleeping the day away, because at least then she does not have to spend any time thinking.

She was so tired initially that she slept without even dreaming, and could waste away her hours by sleeping for as long as she wanted to. But now that that part is over and now that she is starting to recover, she has a harder time falling asleep, and when she does, it is always fitful, and full of dreams that she would much rather forget about. Nightmares about that incident, often exaggerated beyond what actually occurred, to the point that she is not saved by her team, or she is not found by Leon, left out there by herself. Sometimes, her dreams are about her biggest fear right now, her steady fall from grace as more people begin to see her the way she does right now; useless, stupid for ending up in this situation, not worthy of being the champion.

When she wakes up, it makes her not want to go back to sleep, but being awake is just as frustrating. Right now, there is not much that makes her happy, and she is rarely ever content. She is bored and frustrated, and tired of having to live like this, and there is little that she can do to help her situation. She just keeps laying there, waiting for the day that she can finally be released and start to live her life again.

Leon visits her as frequently as he can manage, though he is often busy now that he is helping fill in for her. She also gets plenty of visits from her mother and from the gym leaders, more often Marnie and her brother than anyone else, though Bede has stopped by a few times to tell her that things are boring without her around. Hop and Sonia stop in a lot, often together when they’re done with whatever work that they are currently doing, and she appreciates that, and everyone else. However, she also doesn’t like having everyone come around to see her like this, when she is already so ashamed of the situation.

Nobody has said anything to make her feel worse about it, and she has never mentioned her feeling like it is her own fault, because she is so sure that anyone would reassure her that the opposite is true. Even so, she still does not like having them around, but at least it is a way to pass the time. She likes Leon visiting her both the most and the least, because he has always been her favorite person to be around, but he is the person she least wants to see her in this position. Especially since he has extra work because of her, even if he says he does not mind.

Leon, on the other hand, can’t seem to get enough of visiting her. No matter how busy he may be, he tries to find time whenever he can. Even if he is so exhausted that she wonders why he did not head straight home to sleep, he still stops by, and ignores any time that she chides him for it. Leon is here with a particular purpose in mind, and that purpose is cheering her up. The only problem is, Gloria is not sure that she wants to be cheered up, or that she deserves all of his kindness right now.

She can’t say  _ that _ to him, of course. He wouldn’t take it well, hearing her talk about herself like that, and he certainly would not be able to understand her belief that, because she made a stupid mistake, that she does not deserve to feel better right now. Leon is not the type to get hung up on things like that, and would not only tell her that she didn’t make a stupid mistake, but would tell her that even if she did, there is no reason for her not to move past it, and just be happy in the moment.

But she doesn’t think he can understand how she feels right now, so she is not open to letting him talk her out of this slump. Instead, he just comes by whenever he can and tries to cheer her up, no matter how futile the effort may seem.

Gloria has put on a brave face for everyone that has come to see her, and for the most part, they have all fallen for it. Even her mother and Hop, who would have been some of the most likely, have not seen through it, but somehow Leon knew from the beginning that she was forcing her smile and hiding her pain. That is why he took it upon himself to help her brighten up, and that is why she has steadily begun to show him just how much this is hurting her. After all, if he already knows, then why bother trying to keep it hidden?

Every time that he comes, he brings fresh flowers, even if she still has live flowers in her room. He says that it keeps things fresh and bright, and will help pick up her mood, though she isn’t so sure about that. She’s had flowers in here from the beginning, so if they are supposed to make her feel better, then she would like to know when  _ that _ part is going to start.

“How’s the progress today?” he asks with a bright smile that irritates her more than it usually does lately. She knows that she is being unfair to him, since he really is trying his best.

“It’s progress,” she replies, not matching his smile. Things are slow going right now, and the update is pretty much the same every day now. Even so, he always asks for news and seems excited by the slightest bit of progress, while Gloria remains frustrated. Leon is so optimistic, but it must be easy for him, since he isn’t the one confined to bed. He gets to keep living his life, doing his  _ and _ her work.

When she reaches that line of thought, she always forces herself to back off. If she continues thinking like that, she will end up feeling bitter towards him, when he has nothing to do with her stupid mistake, rather than helping clean up after it. No matter what, she knows that she has no right being mad at Leon, and that her anger is misplaced, just projected onto him to try and make herself feel better.

Truthfully, she does not resent him at all. In fact, she even appreciates his attempts to cheer her up, even if she also feels irritation. Her irritation is just more misplaced anger, not wanting to allow herself to be happy because she wants to keep wallowing in her misery, punishing herself over and over again for her mistake.

Leon has set to changing out her flowers already, humming to himself as he does. He hums a lot lately, trying to fill the silence or drown out the beeping of machines, and make this feel less like a hospital room. Gloria recognizes the song, and catches herself humming along with him, something that she has not allowed herself to do before now. Maybe she should just let him brighten things up in here, and maybe if she stopped fighting it, she would actually start to feel better.

Leon turns around and smiles at her when he notices her humming, and starts softly singing the words to the song. He is a little off-key, but Gloria’s singing isn’t perfect either, though she is content to simply hum along until the song is over. The look on his face, surprise mingled with joy, makes it very worth it, and also gives her a small stab of guilt. If this is all it takes to make him that happy, then why has she wasted time intentionally staying miserable?

Only now is she starting to understand how bad Leon must have felt, and how she has not been the only one putting on a brave face for people. Her family and friends are all worried about her, and though she has smiled to try and keep them from worrying, Leon has received the brunt of her venting, ever since he revealed that he knew she was only faking her smiles. But he is just as worried about her as anyone else, and doing his best to hide it and try and help her out, for her sake and hers alone.

There is nothing she can do to make her recovery go by any faster, and nothing she can do to change the past. However, she can stop wallowing for a little bit, and at least try to cheer Leon up. He has done so much for her, while hiding his own worry, so the least she can do is return the favor. And if she does that, then perhaps she will not be able to fight off her own happiness anymore, and, by cheering him up, may allow him to cheer her up in return.

“Seems like you’re perking up a bit!” Leon comments, and ordinarily, she would just pout or change the subject, or, on her bad days, outright deny it. Instead, she nods.

“It’s been slow going, but I do feel a lot better,” she says, trying to focus on the positive. “When I think about how I started out here, it’s pretty obvious that I’ve made a huge recovery already.”

“You really have done great, Gloria. I’m just glad to see you smiling a little more, if I’m being completely honest. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I’ve heard that a positive attitude can help you get better even quicker,” he says, before pondering it for a moment. “Well, even if it isn’t true, it can’t hurt!”

“You do have a point there.” There is still a part of her that wants to tell him to cut it out, to stop trying to push her to be happy and stop telling her that it will make her feel better. For a while, she resisted any comments about her attitude impacting her recovery, refusing to believe it could help, and refusing to believe it was possible to smile throughout all of this.

Even now that she is trying to put all of that behind her, it is difficult, and her smile falters for a moment. It will still take her some time to smile and mean it, and to cheer up as much as Leon wants her to, but for now, she wants to take it one step at a time, and see where it all takes her.

He seems to notice her smile faltering, though, because he says, “You’re not just faking it again, are you? If there’s something bothering you, you know you can tell me all about it!”

“Haven’t I already done enough of that?” she replies. “I’ve done nothing but complain and vent to you for a while now. I wanted to at least try being more positive, since you’ve already done so much for me.”

Instead of smiling at her words, Leon frowns and shakes his head. “Now, now, don’t force anything just for me. I want you to cheer up because I want to see you happy. But that doesn’t mean that you need to pretend that nothing is wrong even when there is a problem. I’m here for you until the end, no matter what that might involve.”

“Are you sure you want to just watch me mope around all day?”

“Well, no, I don’t  _ want _ to, but not because I don’t want to be here for you,” he says. “I’d prefer if you were happier, but I’d rather be with you moping than with you forcing yourself to smile, or not be with you at all. I don’t want you to be happy for my sake. Just for your sake, alright?”

It is difficult to argue with that, and that she never intended for it to come across that way. Though she does want to cheer up so that Leon will, she also wants to be able to feel better, and isn’t sure if she can, if she thinks that he is still worried about her. Maybe they both need each other to feel better, for both of their sakes, and maybe they need to stop worrying so much about the other.

“I want to cheer up on my own,” she says, “but you can’t expect me not to worry about you, when you worry about me so much.”

“Well, maybe, but I’m not the one…” He trails off, likely deciding against pointing out the obvious in bringing up her condition, but she has a pretty good idea of what he means. “Look, you do make a good point, Gloria. Just don’t worry about me when you feel like you need to complain about something.”

“It’s nothing to really complain about, it’s just hard. You know it’s been hard for me, and I know I talk about how hard it is all the time, but I always get stuck, thinking about how it’s my fault that I’m here. That makes it really hard for me to think positive, cos I just end up mad at myself, and then I take it out on you,” she admits.

“How many times do I have to tell you that it wasn’t your fault? Things like that happen. I know you think you let your guard down too much and that you would have been fine if you had been paying better attention, but you don’t know that for sure,” he says. “You don’t know the condition that I found you in, I just…”

She never forgets that Leon was the one that found her, but she has not ever considered just how hard that must have been on him. He found her when she was barely conscious and completely delirious, and he must have been terrified at the time. None of this is easy on him, and she understands even more now why he feels like he has to put on a brave face for her.

“You were in bad shape, and so was your team. They did their best for you, but everyone was in pretty bad shape,” he continues, once he is able to. “There’s no way to know if you would have ended up that much better off if you had been paying attention. And if there’s no way of knowing that, then you can’t keep blaming yourself and dwelling on that. It was terrible that it happened, but it definitely isn’t your fault, Gloria.”

Blaming herself seemed like the right thing to do, in the past. Maybe so that she would have someone to blame and something to direct her anger at, but ultimately, there is no one at fault and nothing to be angry about. The more Leon speaks, the more she realizes that, especially now that she is finally able to open herself up to feeling better. There is a powerlessness that comes from knowing there was nothing she could do about it, but at least then she does not have to believe that she did this to herself.

With no one and nothing to be mad at, then maybe she can just stop being mad for a little while.

“I want to stop thinking like that. I’m going to do my best to stop thinking like that,” says Gloria. “It’s been really hard for me, though, cos it seems like I should have been able to...but, no, I don’t know that for sure. You’re right, that’s just difficult to accept. Maybe even more so, cos it means I would have ended up here either way, and that kind of makes me feel weak.”

“Trust me, you are  _ anything _ but weak,” he says, giving her a fresh, bright smile. “You can beat me, remember? When you’re all rested up, we can see if that still rings true, but I guarantee that you’ll be wiping the floor with me before long.”

“As long as you don’t let me win to make me feel better,” she teases, and she laughs,a genuine laugh, for the first time in a while. It leaves her a little sore, but still she feels worlds better, just having done it.

“Look, I want you to feel better, but don’t think that means my pride will ever let me go easy on you. I thought you knew me better than that,” he teases right back, and for a moment, everything feels normal between them, even though they are still in her hospital room, and she is still unable to leave the bed.

As they laugh together, Leon leans down to close the distance between them and kiss her. She has not reacted much to any of his displays of affection recently, not seeing them as much of a comfort, but now, she is happy to lean into it, and certain that  _ this _ is what she needs for her recovery. Leon’s happiness is normally contagious, so it has taken a lot out of her to resist it for so long.

But now that he has gotten through to her, she can’t help but mimic his smiles for the rest of his visit, and laugh at all his jokes, either because they are genuinely funny or because he is so  _ un _ funny that she can’t help but make fun of him. By the time he has to leave for the night, she hurts from how much she has laughed, and the pain feels better than anything that she has felt recently.

Gloria looks forward to his next visit, so that they can laugh together again. She looks forward to watching his matches so that she can start studying up on his strategy again, and planning for their big match whenever she gets out of here, no matter when that may be. Though she will likely run into bumps in the road, fresh frustration at her condition or lingering sadness from all that she is missing out on, today has been a big step in the right direction, and she has Leon to thank for that.

He is persistent and he is so cheerful that she can’t resist, and she is so lucky to have him.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're interested in my writing updates, please follow my fanfiction twitter @WattStalf  
> 


End file.
